First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very happy year 2010. Hope you had a lovely Christmas and an exciting New Year’s party! With lots of delish food and drink, of course :)

I’ve spent ten marvellous days in Slovakia, where I’ve been eating so much that I was about to buy myself that T-shirt with the slogan “Please don’t feed me; I want to be a model” written across the chest. But I’d be lying to myself if I did so: those home-made Slovak foods were irresistible!

And this large and festive cake we made for our New Year’s party in Riga. We wrote the recipe from scratch. Actually we have baked a heavier version of this cake (with 4 layers of sponge cake instead of 2, as you will see from the pictures) because we wanted a really huge one, for 12 persons or so. But even in its lighter variation (as posted below), this is definitely a cake for special occasions. The preparations are quite time-consuming too. But we’re sure your guests will appreciate the result!

A walnut sponge cake serves as a base for this cake; it is topped with chocolate butter mousse and crispy walnut meringues; then comes a thick layer of whipped cream sprinkled with toasted walnuts and dried plums soaked in cognac - pleasantly sharp and fruity. And finally, another walnut sponge cake and a thin layer of glossy chocolate icing. Happy New Year!!

We both agreed however that the chocolate icing we used was a big mistake. Much as I like Dansukker, their chocolate icing turned out below average. Manufacturer’s instructions on the package were lame and they said nothing about the icing never freezing or being soft and sticky forever! There was too much sugar and too much starch in it. Next time we’ll choose another brand or simply melt a bar of dark chocolate!

Place dried plums into a small bowl, coat them with cognac (rum), stir, cover and set aside.

Dice 120g walnuts and toast them with 4 teaspoons sugar in a non-stick pan for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Mince all remaining walnuts (320g).

Making the meringues (a method I learned while I was in Slovakia)

Take a large saucepan (without lid) and fill about 1/3 of it with water. Bring the water to boil and stack a large bowl on top of the saucepan. The bowl must be heat-resistant and suitable for whipping.

Keep water in the saucepan boiling, so that the steam heats up the bowl. Add 450g sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar into the bowl and, once the bowl is hot, add 6 egg whites. Keep the water boiling. Whip the meringue with a hand mixer until thick and glossy, with stiff peaks. Turn down the heat, remove the bowl and let the meringue cool for approx. 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup flour and 100g minced walnuts to the yolk mix, stir well and add in the whipped egg whites in small batches, stirring very gently.

Bake in a round-shaped baking pan (diameter 28cm) on a low heat for approximately 30 minutes. Check the readiness with a toothpick.

Assembly

When all parts of the cake are ready and cooled (you can slightly heat up the chocolate mousse if it’s become too stiff by now), whip the cream with 8 teaspoons caster sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar, and stabilizer. Add a tiny splash of fresh lemon juice before you finish beating the cream.

Carefully cut the sponge cake horizontally into two layers.

Take the first layer and place it in your cake form. This will be the cake base.

Spread chocolate mousse over the sponge cake.

Put meringues on the chocolate mousse. Break them to fill in empty spaces. Stack meringues on each other as they will settle and flatten after chilling.

45 Responses

Alina, thanks for stopping at my website and for your encouraging comments.
What a great way to start the New Year, the cake looks absolutely delishh, and the pictures are awesome. Looking forward to reading and trying your recipes, I really want to try eastern european food. Will be visiting often.

Ciaochowlinda, thank you! The picture was taken in Slovakia, in the Tatra mountains. It was -20C outside and +23C in the water. That’s a weird natural hot spring!

Vegetable Matter, thank you - I guess if we had fewer layers (as in the final recipe), the meringues wouldn’t flatten as much. I certainly need more practice with meringues - let’s call it my New Year’s food resolution! :)

As mentioned in the post, that can haeppn if the banana isn’t mashed enough it haeppned to me the first time and it took me 45 minutes to wash it all out.If you use a fine toothed comb or a fine bristle brush (that will need a serious wash or may need to be thrown out depending on how coarse the banana is) it should work out all the banana. Some mini washes with very little shampoo also helps.As I say, this haeppned to me the first time but it’s all down to banana prep.

I used to be recommended this web site by way of my cousin.
I’m not positive whether or not this submit is written by way of him as no one else understand such targeted approximately my problem.
You are incredible! Thank you!

What i do not understood is in truth how you’re no longer
actually a lot more smartly-liked than you may be right now.

You’re so intelligent. You realize thus considerably in relation to this matter, made me for
my part believe it from numerous varied angles.
Its like men and women aren’t involved unless it is something
to accomplish with Girl gaga! Your individual stuffs excellent.
At all times maintain it up!

Dear all, Thanks for stopping by.Ya, this meungire ghosts are too cute..Bee Bee, I know you miss USA very much, hehehe..Melodii, did you beat egg white till stiff peak? did you bake very long hour on low temp? i dont know what was your problem, this recipe is work for me, maybe you should try again..

Wow, that looks so good! I too never think to make meringues, even thuogh they should be so easy, I just never think of them. Oddly enough I’ve just returned from holiday in New Zealand (home of the pavlova althuogh there is some fight as to whether it was actually the Aussies who invented it) and I didn’t actually eat it whilst out there. You post might be just want I needed to prompt me into action. Oh, and while I’m here, great work on the veg garden, it looks awesome!

Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem together with your site in
web explorer, could check this? IE nonetheless is the marketplace chief and a large portion of other folks will miss your fantastic writing because of this problem.

Undeniably believe that that you said. Your favourite justification appeared to be at the web the easiest factor to be mindful of.
I say to you, I certainly get irked at the same time as other folks think about issues that they plainly
do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and also defined
out the whole thing without having side-effects , other folks could take a
signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thank you

Hey fantastic website! Does running a blog such as this
take a great deal of work? I have no understanding of programming
but I had been hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyways, if you have any recommendations
or techniques for new blog owners please share.
I understand this is off topic but I just needed to ask.